She looked pale, sad and frightened. But beautiful, like a lost child in a dark storm. The instinct to pull her in his arms pulsed through him, so strongly that he fisted his hands by his sides.
Pushing her would only make her run away.
* * *
GINNY ALMOST CAVED IN. Griff sounded so caring that for a moment, she forgot she couldn’t trust him.
His brother was a man of the law. Griff saved lives.
They wouldn’t approve of what she had planned for Robert.
But the idea of allowing him to comfort her teased at her resolve.
Even if Robert was here, he might not have anything to do with Joy’s murder. There were other possibilities. She had to find the truth.
“Please, Ginny, I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“I think you do,” he murmured.
Maybe she was out of her league. She needed to give him an olive branch, a half-truth, because he didn’t appear to be backing off.
“All right,” she said. “Sit down and we’ll talk.” She gestured toward the wing chair in the corner while she claimed the desk chair, needing distance between them. “But this is confidential.”
His thick dark brow quirked up in response. “Go on.”
She inhaled a deep breath, planning the story in her mind. If she kept practicing, she might become as adept as Robert at bending the truth. Although her stomach knotted at that idea. She didn’t like deceiving others.
But she also detested the fact that the police had let Robert get away with murder.
“I was recently contacted by a victim who claimed a man she was dating tried to strangle her and then set her house on fire.”
Griff squared his shoulders. “She survived?”
If only she had. “Barely. She went into hiding afterward, because she was afraid he’d find her again and finish what he’d started.”
“Did she report the attack to the police?” Griff asked.
“She did, but it didn’t go well.” Ginny fought anger at the way she’d been treated when she’d first reported Robert’s abuse. “He escaped.”
“What was his name? Where is he?”
“She claims she met him on an online dating site, but when the police investigated, the photo had been taken down. Apparently, the man was savvy enough to delete his profile and wipe it from detection by the authorities.”
“What about the FBI? Cyber experts?”
“They found nothing. He probably used a fake identity and profile before, and he’s most likely created a whole new persona for himself now.”
Silence stretched between them for a tension-filled minute. “What about a sketch?” Griff finally asked. “Did she work with a police artist?”
Ginny bit her lip. “I don’t know. She didn’t give me one.”
“My brothers are different from this other cop,” Griff insisted. “They aren’t incompetent and will get the job done.”
“Maybe. But first I have to know if the cases are even connected.”
“She called you when she saw the news about Joy’s murder?” Griff said, piecing her story together.
“Yes,” Ginny said. At least that was partly true. “That’s the reason I wanted to know if Joy was strangled, if the MOs were the same. If not, I can move on somewhere else to look for this man. But if it’s the same one... Well, I want to nail him to the wall.”
Griff remained silent for another heartbeat, then heaved a breath. “All right. I’ll help, too. Ask her to send a sketch and I’ll show it around town myself. And if you’ll tell me the name the man used on his dating profile, I’ll ask Liam to look into it.”
Ginny shook her head. “I told you this is confidential, Griff. This woman trusted me, not the police. If I find out he’s the one responsible, I’ll keep you informed.”
Griff stroked her arm gently. “Ginny, if you’re right and this guy is a serial predator, he’s dangerous and won’t have any qualms about coming after you.”
“I don’t care,” Ginny said. “I’m going to find him and make him pay for what he did to her.”
* * *
GRIFF TRIED ONE more time to convince Ginny to talk to Jacob, but she refused.
“I shared this with you in confidence. She wants to remain anonymous,” she said, her gaze daring him to argue. “I expect you to uphold that confidence.”
He debated on whether or not he could.
He’d never been a liar or a user, and he didn’t want to start now. Jacob had urged him to stick close to Ginny and see what he could learn, and he had. But now his interest was piqued in both what Ginny had relayed, and what she’d kept to herself.
That burn scar on her wrist meant she had been involved in a fire. She’d talked about an anonymous tip.
Had it been anonymous? Or someone she knew?
Or was it possible that she’d been a victim of the same man or some similar scenario?
Either way, the thought of her in danger disturbed him and roused his protective instincts.
He sat outside in his truck for a while, biding time until he went to the bar. But when Ginny hadn’t ventured out of the inn a half hour later, he decided she’d play it smart and stay tucked in for the night.
He started his engine and drove to Whistler’s Nightcap, hoping to glean more information about Joy’s love life. The parking lot was filling up, a mixture of locals and tourists coming to the mountains for hiking and camping adventures. Soon the town would heat up with spring festivals and white-water rafting. Already hikers ready to explore the Appalachian Trail were piling in, gearing up at the local outfitters, sharing meals and drinks as they planned their excursions.
Most would never complete the two-thousand-mile trek from Georgia to Maine, but even a few hundred miles of the trail was an accomplishment that warranted a pat on the back and admiration from their families and friends.
Fletch would be busy rescuing half of them when they had accidents or suffered injuries or got lost, a common problem on the endless miles of forests and trails in the wilderness.
Griff secured his phone in his pocket, tugged his jacket hood up to ward off the drizzling rain and loped inside. But he couldn’t shake the image of Ginny from his mind. She’d looked so vulnerable and small and proud. Dammit, that pride stirred his admiration, but made dread curl in his belly.
Loud country music pulsed through the crowded interior of the bar while a band rocked out on stage. The dim light helped conceal flaws for hopeless drunks on the prowl for a good-time girl for the night.